Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 2 | Page 11

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

The Perils of Joy: Contesting Mulid Festivals in Contemporary Egypt
By: Samuli Schielke
The Perils of Joy: Contesting Mulid Festivals in Contemporary Egypt. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2012. 269 pp.
$45.00. ISBN: 978-0815633006.
Volume: 1 Issue: 2
June 2013
Review by
Susanne Olsson, PhD
Södertörn University
Sweden
The Perils of Joy is an excellent piece of ethnographical work addressing Mulids in Egypt. The Mulid celebrations are presented as “utopian
exceptions to the order of the everyday where everybody is welcome and many things are possible that otherwise would be deemed out of place” (p.
7). Schielke argues that Mulid festivals imply a festive joy for its own sake, and that they also express visions of society, religion, and the self.
Mulids are the starting point to address larger issues of contested meanings regarding religion, modernity, class, social order, and moral subjectivity
in contemporary Egypt.
The book addresses various views, such as how Mulids are looked upon, where some approve of them, while others argue that it is an innovative
practice against true Islam. Yet others argue Mulids are signs of backwardness. The material was gathered in the late years of the Mubarak regime,
when Salafi interpretations grew, and neo-liberal politics influenced both the practice and the ideas about Mulids expressed in the book; and it also
influences Schielke’s analysis. What can the Mulid celebrations tell us about the contested nature of festive joy under conditions of modernist
visions of order, progress, and subjectivity? This is the main question that Schielke addresses in Perils of Joy.
The book presents the visible aspects of the Mulid: the shape of the celebrations, how they are organized, and where and when. Schielke shows how
a Mulid is a festive world with religious meaning for many participants, but not all. The religious aspect to a Mulid is often connected to a saint’s
shrine, which is visited (ziyara), and which bestows blessing (Baraka). Each Mulid follows an independent schedule, has a local focus, and is often
similar to street festivals. Mulids often appear to be chaotic and manifold, but are embedded in a festive order. Festive lights, music and singers,
temporary cafés, amusement areas, colorful tents, and markets all contribute to make Mulids a happening for most people, not just pilgrims.
Considering the function of Mulids, one may ask if a Mulid is subversive and a challenge to dominant norms, or if it is something that distracts
people from their real problems. Both are common explanations in Egypt, but, Schielke argues, fail to understand the ambivalent nature of festive
time. A Mulid is simultaneously profound and joking, spiritual and commercial, conservative and subversive. In order to get closer to the function
of a Mulid, Schielke argues that we need to consider the meanings given to it by practitioners. The informants’ narratives give voice to a view that
does not present Mulids as occasions of subversion, but that they may become so when entering the hegemonic discourses and imageries in Egypt.
Devout participants rather consider Mulids as occasions of pious devotion and celebration of a saint.
Considering the critical discourses around Mulids, many Egyptians consider them as subversive, as erroneous and backwards, and threatening the
order of things. Some may agree to the veneration of saints, but disagree with the festivities surrounding the Mulids; and some people only
appreciate the festivities. There are those who consider Mulid celebrations to be innovative, which is then not true to Islam, reflecting a struggle of
interpretative authority. Islamic reformists and modernists promote a progressive view, where things ought to have a clear and serious purpose,
which, in their view, a Mulid fails to provide; a Mulid thus represents a false consciousness and subversion and is considered a threat to modernity.
A historical perspective on criticism to Mulids is presented as well where Schielke relates the rejection of Mulids to the Egyptian elite and its
engagement with colonial hegemony. The ridicule of festive traditions is seen as a strategy of the modern middle classes who have tried to claim an
intellectual and political hegemony over other social groups.
In presenting the various opinions of Mulids, Schielke outlines a contemporary Egypt in transit, with different segments o